Shared teaching in health care ethics: A report on the beginning of an idea

In the majority of academic institutions nursing and medical students recei ve a traditional education, the content of which tends to be specific to th eir future roles as health care professionals. In essence, each curriculum design is independent of each course. Over the last decade, however, intere st has been accumulating in relation to interprofessional and multiprofessi onal learning at student level. With the view that learning together during their student training would no t only encourage and strengthen future collaboration in practice settings b ut also enhance patient care, the University of Dundee decided to run a pil ot study to explore shared teaching in ethics between medical and nursing s tudents. This article presents a report on the reasons for selecting health care eth ics as a precursor for shared teaching, the educational tool used for the s essions, and the results of student and facilitator evaluation of the short course. Overall, despite problems such as poor attendance by some students , and facilitation and timetable difficulties, most of the feedback from st udents and facilitators has been positive. In essence the 'idea' has gone f rom strength to strength and there are now three levels of shared teaching in ethics between nursing and medical students, with plans to include furth er sessions with students from other disciplines. Within the text,'health care ethics' will be referred to as 'ethics'; nursi ng students/nurses encompasses midwifery students/midwives.